A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as a picture of thousands of years old sculpture depicting lord Vishnu’s Varaha avatar lifting the round-shaped earth. Sharing the sculpture picture, this post claims that the ancestors of the Sanatana Dharma determined the shape of the earth thousands of years even before the world got to know that the earth is round.
Claim: Picture of thousands of years old sculpture depicting Lord Vishnu’s Varaha avatar lifting the round-shaped earth.
Fact: The photo shared in the post shows a sculpture carved on the walls of Shree Jagannath Mandir in Balasore, Odisha. The construction of this temple began in 2009 and was inaugurated four and a half years later in 2015. Renowned architect and Padma Vibhushan Raghunath Mohapatra was the chief architect of this temple. The photo shared in the post does not show thousands of years old Varaha sculpture. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found published by a user of the Amino social media application. This user described it as the Varaha avatar statue mounted on the wall of Emami Jagannath Mandir. A few other social media handles also clarified that the picture shows a Varaha statue constructed inside Emami Jagannath Mandir in Balasore, Odisha.
When we searched to find sources of this sculpture using this information, we found the same Varaha sculpture pictures in the ‘Google Maps’ Images of Balasore’s Shree Jagannath Mandir. They can be seen here, here and here. Videos published by a few vloggers have also shown the same sculpture on the walls of Shree Jagannath Mandir in Balasore.
According to the information provided on Balsore’s Shree Jagannath Mandir website, this temple was constructed by the Emami Group of Industries in Balasore. Renowned architect and Padma Vibhushan, Raghunath Mohapatra, was the chief architect of this temple construction. The construction of this temple began in 2009 and was inaugurated four and a half years later in 2015. According to the news reports, the Emami Group constructed this temple with a cost of 17 crore rupees.
To sum it up, a photo showing the varaha sculpture inside the Jagannath temple in Odisha that was inaugurated in 2015 shared as a picture of thousand of years old sculpture.
